Cooperative milk pricing on table

MOLINE, Ill. – At the National Farmers Organization annual farm business and marketing convention recently, Dairy Division Director Bradley Rach proposed dairy co-ops come together to improve America’s milk pricing system.
“It is time for cooperatives, all of them, to come together and do what producers want them to do: use their market muscle to price milk,” Rach said.
“I am calling for the leaders of all dairy cooperatives to join me in a meeting to begin a process of outlining a new cooperative milk pricing system.”
Survey. A survey, conducted by the National Farmers Organization and distributed in Hoard’s Dairyman last year, showed that farmers are eager to find new ways to address the problem of low milk prices.
Respondents from 40 states overwhelmingly said dairy cooperatives should be doing more to negotiate fair and stable prices for milk, and 95 percent said their own cooperatives should start working more with other co-ops to help solve this pricing problem.
In his address, Rach mentioned that some co-ops supported higher make allowances for milk processors, even though they knew it would further reduce dairy farmer income.
And he noted that some co-ops are also pulling out of the Cooperatives Working Together supply management program, adding to the pricing pressure.
“Dairy producers need prices that will cover their production costs, support their families and churches, their schools and rural businesses,” said Rach.
Higher prices. “Only higher prices can do that, and that is what our dairy producers deserve.”
National Farmers is a price negotiation and group marketing organization for the nation’s farmers and ranchers.